What We Saw at Madame World's Fair - Elizabeth Gordon

The Palace of Horticulture

Dear Cousins:

Horticulture, as you know, is the art of making things grow, like grass and flowers and blooming trees and shrubs, which add so much to the beauty of the world.

The Goddess of Horticulture, whose name is Flora, should be very happy in the palace which Madame World has provided for her at the Fair, because it is extremely beautiful.

Madame values the goddess Flora very highly, and loves her dearly, because she knows what a very different place this world would be without her.

Her palace at the Fair has a wonderful dome, where the sun shines in all day, and several smaller domes, so that the palace is always light and cheerful.

A perfect thicket of trees and shrubs and flowers surround it, seeming to peep in at their less hardy sisters who live inside the palace.

The wonder worker among flowers and fruits and vegetables, Mr. Luther Burbank, has his headquarters at the Fair, and will be happy to tell any one just how to create new flowers and fruits, and give advice on gardening.

We wanted to ask him why he wanted a red poppy instead of a golden one, but we did not. We love the poppies golden just as they are, and we did not a single bit like the nasturtium-colored ones we saw there. But of course we are only children, and he is very wise.

The people from the Netherlands have a great garden of bulb plants in the grounds, and the Japanese people have cherry, plum, and other ornamental trees, as well as rare flowers.

A gardener told father that the great eucalyptus trees and the cypresses - many of them sixty feet tall - had been brought down from a park and put there around the walls of the palace. We wondered how they liked being transplanted.

But they were playing quite happily with the little winds from the ocean and seemed quite contented. The gardener told us that they were going back home after the Fair is over, so perhaps they had heard.

We are planning a garden for next year. We shall have heaps of poppies.

Your loving cousins,

Jane and Ellen.

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Palace of Horticulture, looking across the Great South Gardens.

The Palace of Horticulture Dear Cousins: Horticulture, as you know, is the art of making things grow, like grass and flowers and blooming trees and shrubs, which add so much to the beauty of the world. The Goddess of Horticulture, whose name is Flora, should be very happy in the palace which Madame World has provided for her at the Fair, because it is extremely beautiful. Madame values the goddess Flora very highly, and loves her dearly, because she knows what a very different place this world would be without her. Her palace at the Fair has a wonderful dome, where the sun shines in all day, and several smaller domes, so that the palace is always light and cheerful. A perfect thicket of trees and shrubs and flowers surround it, seeming to peep in at their less hardy sisters who live inside the palace. The wonder worker among flowers and fruits and vegetables, Mr. Luther Burbank, has his headquarters at the Fair, and will be happy to tell any one just how to create new flowers and fruits, and give advice on gardening. We wanted to ask him why he wanted a red poppy instead of a golden one, but we did not. We love the poppies golden just as they are, and we did not a single bit like the nasturtium-colored ones we saw there. But of course we are only children, and he is very wise. The people from the Netherlands have a great garden of bulb plants in the grounds, and the Japanese people have cherry, plum, and other ornamental trees, as well as rare flowers. A gardener told father that the great eucalyptus trees and the cypresses - many of them sixty feet tall - had been brought down from a park and put there around the walls of the palace. We wondered how they liked being transplanted. But they were playing quite happily with the little winds from the ocean and seemed quite contented. The gardener told us that they were going back home after the Fair is over, so perhaps they had heard. We are planning a garden for next year. We shall have heaps of poppies. Your loving cousins, Jane and Ellen.